Shoot what it feels like

Different light sources will add a different color cast to your images even though to the naked eye they appear ‘normal’. Fluorescent lighting is actually blue in color, tungsten bulbs add yellow.

The naked eye and the brain behind it are smart enough to discern these differences and therefore to us a white paper is a white paper… is a white paper!

The ‘brain’ in your camera is not quite that smart and won’t normalize the range of color temperatures that we can.

The White Balance settings in your camera are here to help as this can have a tremendous impact on the quality of the images that you take as you can take control of your camera and tell it to ‘warm up the image’ or ‘cool down the image’.

Look up the settings for your individual camera’s white balance mode. You can do this manually or in most cases these days, have preset white balance settings.

Below are some of the basic white balance settings that most cameras will have:

Panning is a photography technique that is mostly used to shoot moving objects such as sports cars, race competitions. It involves the horizontal, rotational and vertical movement of an image or video. To achieve best results of a sharp subject with a blurred background, you need to stay with an object as you frame and press the shutter button. It is among the old techniques, so it needs a lot of practice and patience to master.

Thirds rule

It is a method that is frequently used by artists and painters. Work produced using the technique can be found in art galleries. The rule of thirds method involves breaking down the photo in thirds, vertically and horizontally to have nine parts. The focus object is usually not placed in the middle which results to it being interesting, moving and dynamic. Factors to consider are the point of interest and the frame. Mentally divide your viewfinder into three to frame the shot.

The camera lens is one of the most important parts of the camera, but it is not that hard to clean. You simply need to take off end and front caps and use a soft lens cleaning brush to get rid of sand and large particles present. The brush should be very soft, so it does not scratch the lens. Using lens wipes and lens cleaning fluid you can then wipe clean the glass. The lens tissues are non-abrasive and will not scratch the glass. You can then use a dry wipe to dry up any residue.

Cleaning the sensor

It is more sensitive compared to the lens and should be handled with care. If you have the right camera cleaning kit, then you might just manage to do a good job with the cleaning, but if you are not very sure then it would be wiser to have a professional do the cleaning for you. You will need a disposable sensor swab and a sensor cleaning solution. The swab should be just

Amateur photographers do not understand the unavoidable use of tripods or monopods in dim lights. Therefore, their pictures come out to be blurry or unclear. Blurred photographs can now be made clear and sharp. There are tools which can also aid you to reverse the effect i.e. anonymize a photograph by blurring it.

Removal of the Red Eye

This defect is generic in photos of the people with light eye colour and when they look directly into the flash. This effect of red spot appearing in the eyes can be removed with red eye removal tool.

Temperature Control

It is a trend to get clicked in retro or solar modes. The temperatures could be adjusted with the use of smart editing tools to make your picture look as if it was clicked in early years. You can even set other colour combinations and make it look more attractive. However excessive sharpness will increase the noise; whereas extensive noise reduction will spoil the picture details. Temperature control can be used to retouch an old photograph to make it look as clear as new.

Images can be accessed on the web or Google images, etc. But, these images are usually owned by individuals or agencies. Therefore, their usage can be a legal issue.

Nowadays, there are stock image sites which have a collection of a wide variety of images that can be used.

There are two options available for using stock images:

1. Some websites offer images that can be used legally free of charge. The drawbacks of using these images:

The number of images is limited.

Images are not of very high quality.

These images are common. They are used by most bloggers, designers, etc.

2. There are websites where a monthly subscription can be purchased and their images used on a regular basis. The benefit of these sites is that the user can upload unique pictures in his content/ website. However, the drawback is that the user needs to pay for the images.

It is up to the user to decide which website to use, based on the aspects that are significant to him. The user should select images that are relevant to the content.

Remember: dust and other particles should be removed from the camera lens before each photo shoot. If you have taken photos without cleaning the lens, you will see dust on the shots. For this, you can choose the Healing Brush from the menu to get rid of the dust spots.

Readjust the levels

If you want to increase the contrast level of a photo, all you have to do is darken the shadows and brighten the highlights. You should go to the Levels and then drag the white arrow in the right direction to achieve the desired effect.

Increase the saturation

To make the colors stand out, you can increase the saturation level. So, it’s a good idea to increase the saturation in order to make your images more colorful. However, it’s a good idea to use this feature sparingly as noisy colors don’t look good at all.

Change it Back to black and white

Mono is awesome in some cases. Therefore, you may want to try out this conversion tool. You can give a go to the preset conversion to change the way colors are converted.

Winter and Snow means – lots of dark and white! Our camera generally do a pretty good job of exposing our images correctly for us – but, when it comes to scenes with lots of black or white it can struggle.

Every camera is designed to expose as close to medium grey as possible, which is fine for an evenly lit scene, but in a situation like a snowy day with lots of sunshine, your camera sees all that bright white and tries to balance it by underexposing the entire scene. The answer is to dial in between +1 and +2 stops of exposure compensation.

You should be able to do this with any reasonable spec camera from a compact through to a DSLR. Try it and see how white your snow becomes!

Shoot raw OR with a warmer white balance

Shooting raw rather than jpeg gives you the opportunity to recover a lot of detail from any blown highlights in post-production, should you overdo the exposure compensation. You’ll also have a chance to deal with any white balance issues that might occur because

• You have a better business value – While your guests and clients notice professional photographers present at your event, they tend to value you more as it brings about a skilled touch to your work. While you have professional and high quality images of your event for showcasing on your website and brochures, you get to bring about an appeal that is professional.

• Proficient services – While they come along with a set of high quality equipment to capture your event, they would ensure the fact that you do not have to instruct them on anything after an initial briefing. If it is a large event, they would ensure that several photographers in the team would capture the event from different angles.

• Helps in future business prospects – While you have a stock of high-quality images to showcase your clients, you have better chances of business for the days to come. Your employees can use them as references and also helping you bring out a good picture of your company o the world.

• Creates a good memory for your organisation – While you collect photographs from your employees and guests that

However, problem with those regular, non-digital frames is that you can only display one picture. So if you want to share ten pictures you will need ten different frames. That’s not a practical thing to do. Today, given our lifestyle and our reliance on digital media so much, we need something that could multitask even if it is a display item. Digital photo frames are thus your best bet. These are specifically designed for showcasing multiple photos of you or whoever you want to gift to. They give a brilliant and novel look wherever you intend to keep them. You can enthrall anyone with the idea of displaying his/her pictures in digital format without using any gadget.

They come handy with Wi-Fi connection, SD card or USB port. These are the sources that display your photographs in digital format. Some also have Bluetooth and printer application through which you can easily send commands to printer and take out hard copy of your favorite pictures.

One of the most interesting features about them is the extensive connectivity these offer. All the time you can connect with Facebook or WhatsApp, in the same way you do on your

Understand that pressing the shutter is only half of making a good photograph.

Modern cameras are no match for the human eye, and still have lots of limitations, especially in low light situations.

Post-processing has been done since the invention of photography (either in a traditional darkroom or on a computer). This is where you polish your final images, and make adjustments to compensate for the constraints of the camera.

Select and present only the very best images from a photo shoot.

Store a back-up copy of their images onto an external hard drive, or somewhere safe.

Publish photographs, so they aren’t destined to die on a dusty hard drive, unseen by the world.

Share their work to get constructive feedback from peers, (e.g. via on-line galleries such as 500px, Flickr, Google Photos, Instagram or a Facebook group.)

Present their images as a means of self-expression; their contribution to recording the world, from their point of view, (e.g. framed photos, greeting cards, calendars, art galleries, photo-books, or merely as prints inside a simple photo album).

A bit of background may help in understanding where I am coming from. I have been a keen photographer for many, many years and cut my teeth, so to speak, on film SLR’s having used Canon, Nikon and Pentax cameras long before digital cameras came on the scene.

I embraced the digital format and enjoyed the differences that it brought. In the intervening years I have tried a wide selection of different types of digital cameras. I have tried the simple compact, the bridge, the DSLR and more recently the CSC or compact mirrorless camera. Each one has their benefits, depending on what you want from a camera.

The quality of each type is generally good, although in many respects you still ‘get what you pay for’.

Popularity

Thinking about the popularity of each, I think there will always be a larger proportion of people who prefer the DSLR, but there is a newer kid on the block that is fast gaining ground over the DSLR because of the difference in size and portability among other things and that is the Compact System Camera or Mirrorless camera, so named because of the

First of all, you should get the sensor exposed. Once the whole sensor becomes visible, you should clean the lens with the gel stick. Then you should clean the dust off the gel using the adhesive paper that comes with the gel stick. Remember: don’t make a rush when cleaning the camera. You don’t want to drop the camera accidentally.

You can use the gel several times repeating the process over and over again. Once you are done, you should turn the camera off, install the lens and set the aperture to f/32. Now, take a photo of a white wall or a white piece of paper. If the picture is free of any spots, the lens is clean.

Usually, sensor gel sticks should not be used in a room with a temperature lower than 40F. The ideal temperature is 70F if you want the best performance. Using the product in too low or too high temperatures will not give you the best performance. In worse cases, you may end up reducing the shine of the sensor, which will adversely affect the image quality. Therefore, you may want to check the temperature of the room first.

People say that to become a professional photographer takes at least from five to six years of steady and regular training and development. Market conditions are constantly changing; if a person is ill-versed in it, he has to wade through a lot of difficulties. The fact is that what there was five or six years ago may be no longer applicable today. This also applies to the practical work, and education. Paradoxically, today photographers are not prepared in any educational institution, they start from scratch with the camera and simply do photography depending on practice and taking some theory from I-net. A complete professional education involves the viability of the labor market, a good level of preparation of the photographer, both technical and artistic. So, relying on that, there are some ways of getting knowledge for the future photography career.

PHOTOGRAPHY SCHOOLS

Higher education in photography is available in many institutes of higher education, schools, training, etc. But now, according to professional photographers, this formation does not meet modern requirements. More and more people step aside from the formal education for independent courses or even free I-net lectures.

The techniques and processes of getting an image ready for final presentation are implemented by image retouching, resulting in augmentation of its looks. Almost all images you see in any format of advertisements have undergone retouching, which can vary from just a subtle change to a dramatic changeover of various elements of the image. Even the photos of real beauty campaigns undergo this important process, may be for small improvements like dust removal and sharpening.

Image retouching works towards slightly changing, rather improving, looks of the subject. The digital manipulation includes basic “fixes”, like erasing pimples or making a ruddy complexion appear even. Experienced and talented photo retouches can even perform more complex manipulations such as making a subject appear slimmer or even morphing two or more subjects seamlessly. Scars on the face or body of a person are also easily erased through this process of digital enhancement.

In the case of a product, the experts of photo retouching make the product appear attractive by all round development of its image. Mostly a reader or viewer decides on buying a product after seeing its picture, especially decor items or furniture, quality enhancement of their images holds

Unlike the zoom lens, a prime lens has a fixed focal length which cannot be adjusted. Prime lenses are slightly quicker to focus with a much better level in picture quality as there are less moving parts within the lens itself.

Macro Lens:

Macro lenses allow you to capture extreme close ups. They create a unique image of tiny subjects that cannot be seen with the naked eye.

Wide Angle Lens:

This lens allows you to fit much more into an image than others, widening the amount of space that you can capture within the image.

This lens is great when you have limited ability to step backwards to get more into an image or when shooting land and seascapes.

Fish Eye Lens:

This is an oval shaped, 180 degree view of the world. Initially created to give the photographer the ability to capture whole skies and landscapes. A fun little lens that you can use creatively.

Telephoto Lens:

High magnification lens enabling you to take long range action photography for the likes of sports and wildlife. It allows you to be further from the action

1. Pick Your Partner: If you really wish to give it a shot, get yourself acquainted with the various devices available to you. Check your budget range and pick a camera or a smart phone that you think suits you the best. Put in a few hours of research and find yourself a device that is not only good to begin with but also decent enough to take you a little beyond just the ‘beginner’ level.

2. Develop An ‘Eye’: The mark of a good photographer is often the uniqueness of their perspective. Try to gain that unique perspective on your surroundings and capture it on film. Take pictures of the ordinary, the mundane and see how you can bring a new dimension to them.

3. Take Pictures Even If You Don’t Want To: Be consistent. It is easy to indulge yourself with a new camera and play with photography for a little while before getting distracted. Remain focused. Try to take pictures even when you aren’t in the mood. Any hobby, any talent needs to be hewn into perfection with constant practice and patience.

There comes a time when your digital camera doesn’t do your skills justice. While point-and-shoot cameras are convenient and cheaper, they are restricted by their simplicity and their smaller sensor size.

Unfortunately, the old adage ‘you get what you pay for’ is still the truth. Even an entry-level DSLR and kit lens will produce sharper and bigger images, and allow you to play with a wider aperture range, from at least f/4 to f/22.

If you’re into landscape photography, a sturdy tripod is a must, as is a polarising filter to darken blue skies. A cable release will prevent camera shake during longer exposures. A decent kit bag will protect your expensive gear, and enable more efficient access to it.

Subscribe to a photography magazine

The racks of most bookshops are stacked with numerous photography magazines. My favourite is Digital SLR Photography*, which boasts a higher standard of writing than found in other titles from the UK. Of course, these days you can subscribe to the digital version of magazines, and download them to your mobile device of choice.

The border is made of plastic and a plexiglass that covers the poster. The back is made from cardboard, which makes the frame lightweight. For easy hanging, the back has a hook as well.

There is an option to install a mat as well. However, you won’t see double matting in these frames because they will add extra weight.

Snap Frames

Snap frames is another great option. Usually, snap frames load the photos from the very front, which allows you to replace the photo without removing the frame. For ease of access, all of the sides of the frame are open. They are good for movie posters.

Acid-free poster frames

When buying a poster frame, make sure you know whether it’s acid-free or archival. Ask yourself if you need to use a poster to beautify your room or you need to use one to preserve a memorabilia or a piece of art. If you want to use it for preservation purposes, you should give a go to a higher quality material.

Archival Poster Frames

If you want to preserve an artifact, you can take your poster frame to a

All photographic materials will deteriorate with time. The rate at which they decay is different for various materials (and storage conditions), but it is happening to all of your photographic memorabilia just the same.

Old slides and negatives will tend to color-shift over time. This happens when the film base (which is plastic!) slowly changes with age. The dyes which form the image can also fade – particularly in the case of less-expensive color photographs.

As soon as your pictures are digitized, that deterioration is stopped. Perhaps most importantly, the digitized images can, very often, be brought back to their original brilliance with relative ease, if the deterioration has not been too great. In addition, there are now digital storage discs that are expected to last for over 100 years

If you have a lot of slides, to view your slides, you have to dig out your old projector (if it still works – tried to find a projector bulb recently?), or a slide viewer, in order to see them.

If you have old negatives, you really can’t view them at all – unless you have some rare genetic ability to visually invert colors